The Earth Shall Turn to Ash
by Shadaki
Summary: Ash Ketchum has saved the world many times. And for Ash, things don't always end when the world is saved. Sometimes, he relives the crises for days, in nightmares. A few days after returning from Kalos, Ash visits his friend Misty, and after some time talking, their conversation drifts from his near victory in the Conference towards a darker subject.


Finally posting this off of Spacebattles. I was reading a different fanfic, and my mind began to wander off in a rather dark direction. This was the result (after running through it in my head over and over again to expand on it and find the right words to use).

* * *

A few days after returning from Kalos, Ash Ketchum decided to go to Cerulean to visit Misty. The Gym Leader was closing up for the day, having just beaten her most recent challenger. And so she brought her friend to the Gym's lounge to catch up. After some time talking, the teenagers' conversation naturally drifted to his near victory in the Lumiose Conference.

...

"You'll win next time, Ash. I'm sure of it."

Ash Ketchum beamed.

"Thanks Misty"

"Pi-Pikachu!"

Misty chuckled. "So where are the two of you going next, mister Pokémon master?"

The boy's smile faded.

"Ash, what's wrong?"

"…I need a break."

"From competing in the Pokémon League?"

"No. The other thing."

"…You mean the saving the world stuff? Is this about the Team Flare Crisis?"

"Uh huh…. What did you see?"

"It was two in the morning when you lost, Ash. I turned off the T.V. and went to bed right after. I learned everything about the crisis second hand."

Misty took a moment to think.

"I remember hearing that someone named Lysandre used a mind-controlled Zygarde to summon the vines to destroy Lumiose. After Zygarde was freed, He sent a giant rock in the shape of Zygarde to destroy a sundial? But you and the winner, and the gym leaders and champions slowed it down. Then Lysandre climbed on top of it to make it continue until Zygarde reappeared and grew huge to defeat them. Did I get that right?"

"Pretty much, Yeah."

"How _did_ you break Zygarde out of its mind control, anyway?"

"It wasn't me - Bonnie did it. Apparently she sang to it."

"Apparently? You're always at the center of everything. Where were _you_?"

Ash took a breath. "...Remember in Johto, what Team Rocket was trying to do to Mewtwo?"  
 _Team Rocket – the Criminal Organization, not the three idiots who've spent years trying to steal Pikachu. She remembered the machines that had bound the psychic; the electricity coursing through him; How Team Rocket's boss told him it would end if he would only resubmit to the organization. The Pokémon's scream as it decided to stop resisting the currents in order to free up enough power to break out of its bonds._  
"I heard there were multiple Zygarde. Were you trying to free another one?"

Ash shook his head, and looked down. "There were. But, no."

Pikachu seemed to deflate, and quietly, sadly, rasped "Pikapi"  
 _  
What? No…_

"When the vines attacked the stadium, Alain and I noticed that his friend Mairin had gone missing, so we split off from everyone else to go looking for her. Team Flare ambushed me, and they attacked me and Pikachu with a Confuse Ray. When I woke up…"

"…They were holding you." It wasn't a question.

Ash nodded. "At the top of Prism Tower, yeah. Lysandre said that the world was imperfect. Ugly. That it had to be destroyed. He wanted me to be one of his _Chosen Ones_ ", he cringed as he said the words. "and he needed me and Greninja's bond phenomenon to control Squishy. To destroy this world. He used some machines to drain energy from us… It hurt."

"Ash!"

"When I told him he wouldn't be able to control us, he said… he that we were the _Chosen Ones_ " again, cringing at the title, "to guide humanity once most of the world is gone. I… I love this world, Misty. I…I care about everyone in it."

The Gym Leader almost blushed.

"I wouldn't let him destroy it. I told him that, and then combined with Greninja to break out. Then Alain freed the others, and we both challenged Lysandre. When we beat him, he jumped off the building. You know the rest already."

"Are you okay? were you injured?"

"I'm fine."

"So its over, right? There's nothing to get worked up over."

"I guess... I still get nightmares, though."  
 _  
She suddenly remembered his week of nightmares following the events of Alto Mare. They all had them, really, but he had it the worst. And according to Brock, Ash had continued getting them following Legendary Pokémon encounters after she had left. She had never asked what they were about._

"The nightmares?"

"Remember back in Shamouti, how I was part of that prophecy? I've forgotten most of it, except for that one line…"

 _So that's why he cringed_ , Misty mused. She thought back to that day, years ago, when the boy saved the world for the first time. _They had arrived at the island on the day of an annual festival to remember an ancient prophecy about a climate catastrophe. Ash had been picked to play the role of the Chosen One that had been foretold to avert it. And as Ash played the part, some insane collector instigated the crisis to collect a rare Pokémon. Soon they realized that Ash_ was _the prophecy's chosen one. And the priestess Melody recognized that one line, rather than warning about the end of the world, instead told who exactly would save the day:_  
"The Earth shall turn to Ash" Misty guessed.

"Yeah. I had mostly forgotten it. Until after Alto Mare. The day after,", Ash gulped, "I overheard some lady talking about how her brother's ashes were in an urn. How he meant the _world_ to her. And so she would always have him with her, since the urn was like a soul jar. And I was reminded of the Soul Dew." He closed his eyes. "In the dream, I relived reaching the museum, and seeing Latios trapped in that device, in pain. And then I hear Melody say the words as Bianca and Lorenzo and Latias look at me. And then after we free Latios, they fly out to stop the tsunami. A blue and red light enter, and the blue one vanishes. Then we recover Latias in the sea. Sometimes…sometimes… floating next to Latias, is a pile of _ash_."

Once sitting straight, he had begun to slouch perceptibly.

"For the stuff that's happened since then, the nightmares have been about how I _could_ _have_ failed.

After the Millenium Comet, I had a nightmare that I was carrying Jirachi to Butler's Machine, to wish away the fake Groudon. And I hear Melody saying "The Earth Shall turn to Ash", while everyone already trapped in the monster looks at me. But it grabs us and eats us, and so their isn't anything that can stop it.

After Samiya, I had dreamt that I was underwater putting the Crown of the Sea back where it belongs. And I hear Melody say the words while remembering that everyone, May, Manaphy, Max, Brock, and the People of the Sea, are depending on me. But when I run out of air, Manaphy isn't there to revive me, so the temple sinks, and everyone in it drowns.

In the Alamos town nightmare, we're climbing up the Spacetime towers, and I hear Melody speak as the townspeople look up at us. And then whoever's holding the disk falls off the tower, or it won't fit in the slot, or Pikachu and Pachirisu can't power up the device in time. So the reality bubble collapses, or Dialga or Palkia kills the other and the universe is destroyed.

And then in ancient Michina, I'm-"

"-Ash, I get it."

"…During the clean up, after the crisis was over, a gardener told me that she was happy that I was around, 'cuz ashes can be used to make plants grow, and that means that Kalos will be beautiful again in no time. But that's what Lysandre wanted, wasn't it? And… and I thought, vines are plants too, right?

This time the nightmare's been different. I don't hear Melody this time, for one. And… I don't die this time."

 _Occasionally, after watching or otherwise learning about Ash's extreme escapades, she might think about how devastated she would be, how she and Pikachu and his mom might practically die inside, if he got himself killed. Very rarely did she actually consider that if he did die, then they, and the rest of the world, probably would too. She shuddered at the thought._

"It would be better if I did."

Misty's heart sank.

"I'm standing high up on a balcony with Lysandre, Greninja and Alain. As Lysandre talks, I start looking down. Below us is a huge plaza that's crowded with people and pokémon. And there's you and Pikachu and Brock and Clemont and Serena and Bonnie, and every one else I've met. When Lysandre finishes speaking, everyone in the crowd looks right at me. People… people at home turn on their TV's to watch me. Then Lysandre nods at me. Sometimes…sometimes Latios…" Ash takes a deep breath. "Sometimes Latios flies at us to stop us. Whenever he does, Greninja creates a huge wave or a giant Water Shuriken to-to…"

"To drown him," she whispered

"Yeah," he muttered, "What happens after Lysandre looks at me isn't always the same. In some dreams I press a button, other times I give an order to Zygarde or Pikachu or Greninja or the Megalith or… No matter which way I do it, the Sundial is destroyed. And then everyone in the plaza…"

Ash Winced.

"Everyone in the plaza starts screaming and burning. More and more people start burning and the screaming gets louder until I can see the whole earth on fire. And Lysandre is smiling at me. And I look away, and all the bad guys I've fought are behind me, and grinning at me.

Eventually the screams stop and I look back into the plaza, and it's filled with giant vines. But there's no one there. Instead... Instead there's a layer of ash."

By this point the boy's head is in his hands.

"I can't do this anymore, Misty!"

He was breathing hard. There were tears in his eyes.

Misty wanted to yell or scream at someone or hit them with her mallet. But the man responsible was dead and doing it to Ash would be counterproductive. What she needed was some way to make him feel better.

 _Give him a hug. You can worry about him noticing your feelings for him later. Comforting him is more important._

"Ash, come here."

And so the Hero of Kalos and his partner moved to sit next to Misty on her couch, and she brought them close so that the mouse and Gym Leader could hold him tight. For perhaps an hour they sat like that until he was calm, quiet except for the boy's occasional sobs.

* * *

AN:

The characterization is likely off; The pacing is probably bad, and I have no idea how to write non-dialogue (this being possibly my first non-school(?) attempt at creative writing). I'm not even sure if I can fit this into my own headcanon, but I felt it needed to be written down. Hopefully this is a good first attempt at writing something that isn't for a school assignment. Perhaps it could serve as a setup for someone else to turn Alola into a reconstruction of Ash Ketchum as The Hero? I don't know.


End file.
